Posts Tagged ‘recipes’

PASTA WITH ASPARAGUS AND SAUSAGE

Posted: May 14, 2014 in asparagus, Carnivore!, cheese, Food, Italian, pork, Recipes, sausage
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asparagus pastaAsparagus season has arrived in my garden. This is one of my favorite ways to enjoy it.
Ingredients:
4 mild Italian sausages, sliced into pieces 1/2″ thick
1 lb penne pasta
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 cup chopped fresh trumpet mushrooms (white button mushrooms work, too)
2 cups fresh asparagus, sliced into 1-inch pieces
1 clove garlic, passed through a garlic press
1 cup homemade chicken broth
6 fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
Have the pasta water boiling, and add pasta, cooking until just a bit more undercooked than al dente.
Heat a large pan, and drizzle in some olive oil. Sautee sausage pieces until browned and cooked through, but not over cooked. Remove sausages from the pan and place in a separate bowl. Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the fat left behind in the pan.
Place pan back on stove and saute onions until translucent. Add garlic, and saute for 10 seconds. Add sage, and saute for 10 seconds, stirring. Add chopped mushrooms and saute for a few minutes, then add chicken broth, and simmer until almost all the liquid has evaporated. Pour contents of the pan into the bowl with the sausages.
Return pan to the stove, add a little more olive oil, and on medium heat, saute the asparagus pieces. Cook until they are al dente, not too soft. Once the asparagus has reached this stage, return all the contents of the sausage/mushroom bowl to the pan to heat through. Drain the pasta, and add it to the pan as well, combining all the ingredients. If it looks too dry, add a little pasta water to the pan. Season with salt and pepper.
Make sure you serve this hot, with grated Parmigiano Reggiano on top, and drizzle lightly over the top with extra virgin olive oil.

 

LIKE BUTTAH

Posted: May 10, 2014 in Food, Recipes
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Butter is like Play-Doh for foodies: you can mold it and mix it with whatever ingredients you like. Go to a fancy steakhouse, and you’ll get a slab of their “house butter” with your bread, or melted on top of your hunk of beef.

It’s incredibly easy to make your own at home…and there are no rules: add whatever you like and leave out what you don’t.

My buttah…

butter

 

Ingredients:

 

8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon each: fresh rosemary, thyme, and oregano…finely chopped

pinch of granulated garlic and onion powder

 

Let the butter soften. Add the rest of the ingredients and combine well with a fork.

Take a piece of plastic wrap and lay it down on the counter. Smear the butter mixture onto the plastic with a spatula, forming a rough log. Roll the plastic wrap tightly lengthwise, tightening the log into a nice long round cylinder about 1 1/2″ thick. Twist the ends of the plastic wrap to remove any air bubbles.

Freeze and slice a piece off when you need it. When cooking a steak, simply let the warmth of the beef melt the slab of butter while you eat…

SLOPPY JOSE

Posted: May 6, 2014 in beef, burgers, Carnivore!, cheese, Food, Recipes, taco
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My name for a messy yet delicious taco on a bun. I had leftover taco meat and leftover barbecue sauce…recipes from two previous blogs. Putting them together with a sprinkling of Mexican cheese on a bun with lettuce and tomato made for one sloppy but delicious sandwich!

sloppy jose

How to make one…

For the barbecue sauce, I used the sauce inspired by Franklin’s Barbecue in Austin, Texas, as featured in my last blog: http://wp.me/p1c1Nl-qX

For the seasoned taco meat…

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon granulated garlic

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon crushed pepper flakes

1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano

1 teaspoon paprika

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 Spanish onion, finely chopped

olive oil

2lbs. grass-fed ground beef

 

Combine all the spice ingredients in a bowl.

Saute the onions in a bit of olive oil until translucent. Add the beef and saute until cooked, mixing in the spice mixture a little at a time until you’ve used it all.

 

For the sandwich…

Take some of the taco meat and place it in a small non-stick pan and heat on medium. Squirt in as much of the barbecue sauce as you like, mixing thoroughly. Sprinkle some grated Mexican cheese on top, mixing thoroughly and letting it all melt together into one warm, gooey mess. Throw it on a bun. Add lettuce, tomato, avocado slices, whatever you like!

 

THE MINT JULEP: PERHAPS THE GREATEST BOURBON DRINK EVER

Posted: May 2, 2014 in Cocktails, drink recipes, Drinks, Recipes, Uncategorized
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The Mint Julep is such a perfect, classic and historic bourbon drink, it seems silly to wait until Derby day to have one. Of course, as any aficionado of spirits will tell you, there are as many right ways as wrong ways of making one. And I enjoy the taste of bourbon in my Manhattans so much that I don’t really get a craving for a Mint Julep as often as one might think.

The first step in my Mint Julep is making the simple syrup. I use the standard ratio of 1 cup of clean, filtered water to 1 cup of sugar, but I use an organic product like Woodstock Farms Organic Pure Cane Sugar. Place the sugar and water in a saucepan and heat until just boiling. I’ve found that it needs to reach this stage for the unbleached sugar to really dissolve. As soon as it starts to boil, remove the saucepan from the heat, and throw in a handful of freshly picked mint leaves. Stir to make sure the mint gets in there, and then leave the saucepan to cool to room temperature. Once it’s at room temp, strain the simple syrup into a bottle with a tight sealing lid, and place in the refrigerator to cool. It will keep for about a week.

The next step is the tough part: the battles of the bourbons! The recent explosion of choices on the bourbon market has made it all but impossible for the average imbiber to know which bourbon is best for their tastes. My suggestion for this is to go to a trusted bartender and explain that you’re new to the bourbon world, and could you have the tiniest of tastes and sniffs of what he’s got at his bar. Chances are, you’ll get a sampling of some of the better known brands: Maker’s Mark, Woodford Reserve, perhaps Buffalo Trace or Bulleit, and the standard Jim Beam. This is a very good start. If you have deeper pockets, go to the manager of a trusted higher end liquor store and explain that you’ve had all the rest, now what does he think is the best? This is how I came across a fabulous 17-year-old bottle of Eagle Rare, my choice for my Mint Julep, though currently incredibly difficult to find. And of course, hinting to wife and friends that “I’m trying new bourbons” around your birthday or the holidays inevitably gets you a few bottles as well!

Other ingredients for my perfect Mint Julep include crushed ice from clean, filtered water. Don’t even think of using tap water for any cocktail much less this one. Why ruin an expensive bottle of bourbon by going cheap on the ice? I make my own ice cubes, then put them in a canvas ice bag and bash them to the perfect crushed size.

And a Mint Julep needs a metal–not glass– Julep cup. Made of pewter or aluminum, it frosts on the outside as you stir your drink, keeping your beverage ice-cold on even the hottest of days. You simply need to have one to make the perfect Mint Julep.

So many choices...

From left to right: the now hard-to-find Eagle Rare 17-yr-old, Bulleit, Maker’s Mark, Jim Beam, and the now impossible to find Pappy Van Winkle 15-yr-old.

 

So here’s my recipe…

 

ALZ MINT JULEP

 

Ingredients:

3 oz bourbon (my go-to these days is Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel)

1 oz mint-infused simple syrup

crushed ice

Julep cup

Fresh mint for garnish

Crush the ice and pack it into the Julep cup, even letting it dome slightly over the top. Don’t worry…the alcohol will melt it.

I like to add 1 jigger of bourbon (1.5 oz), then the shot of simple syrup (1 oz), then another jigger of bourbon on top. Break off a few mint leaves from the stem and push into the ice. Using a long spoon, stir the drink well. A beautiful layer of frost will form on the outside of the cup. Add more ice, if necessary, and garnish with a sprig of mint.

 

REUBEN SEUP

Posted: April 24, 2014 in bacon, cheese, Food, Recipes, sauerkraut
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Why have soup and a sandwich when your soup can be your sandwich? I had all the ingredients to make a Reuben sandwich. But I wanted soup. So I made Reuben Seup…I mean Soup!

Think French onion soup, but using Reuben ingredients…

rye

Take an oven-proof soup bowl. Line the bottom with some rye bread.

kraut

On top of that, place a nice helping of sauerkraut. I use sauerkraut that’s been rinsed and drained, then sauteed with some onions and bacon until lightly caramelized.

stock

Slice pastrami as thinly as possible, and simmer it in a pot of homemade chicken stock until tender. Season stock with salt and pepper, if needed. Pour the stock and pastrami over the sauerkraut.

swiss

Layer slices of Swiss cheese over the top of the bowl. Place under broiler until melted.

melty

Eat!

eat

It satisfied my soup and sandwich craving!

 

CANTONESE ROASTED CHICKEN

Posted: April 20, 2014 in Carnivore!, chicken, Food, Recipes
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When I can’t get to Chinatown in Boston or New York, I cook my version of a recipe I discovered many years ago in “The Chinese Cookbook,” a wonderful source of information by former NY Times food critic Craig Claiborne and Virginia Lee. I prefer using a whole pasture-raised organic chicken from my good friends at Fire Fly Farms in Stonington, CT (www.fireflyfarmsllc.com).

 

Cantonese chicken

 

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, about 6 lbs, or 2 smaller chickens (pictured)

1 tablespoon Peanut oil

1 tablespoon Soy sauce

6 tablespoons Hoisin sauce

2 teaspoons Sesame Oil

4 teaspoons Chinese Five Spice powder

2 teaspoons Garlic Powder

2 teaspoons Salt

1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper

 

Remove all giblets from chicken. Rub the soy sauce all over the chicken. Then rub the peanut oil all over the chicken.

Combine Chinese Five Spice, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a bowl. Season entire chicken, including inside the cavity, with this mixture.

Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees. Place chicken in a pan lined with aluminum foil (cleanup will be easier) and bake.

Meanwhile, combine hoisin sauce and sesame oil in a small bowl. When chicken is about 15 minutes away from being done, brush with hoisin/sesame oil mixture. Cook another 15 minutes until chicken has a nice dark glaze…do not burn!

 

Let rest about 15 minutes before carving.

 

MUSSEL FRITTERS

Posted: April 16, 2014 in Food, frying, restaurants, seafood, Southern New England, Uncategorized
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Clam fritters, conch fritters, lobster fritters…I suppose you could fritter anything. But the first time I had them with mussels, I knew that I would never fritter my life away with any other!

It was a fall afternoon in Newport, Rhode Island, at the Newport Yachting Center’s annual Oyster Festival. We’re gorging on freshly shucked oysters and clams, boiled shrimp, and…what have we here? I had never heard of a mussel fritter before, but Wendy, the lovely lady behind the counter, convinced me that her secret recipe would knock my socks off. I took one bite, then another, then another…There was no turning back.

They couldn’t be easier to make, but it is crucial to have the right fritter batter. And that starts with a product called Drum Rock fritter mix. If you live in New England, you can find it in just about any seafood department at Whole Foods. If you live further away, you can check out their website (http://www.drumrockproducts.com/index.php) or try your luck with a local brand of fritter mix.

fritter ingredients

 

If you’re using fresh mussels, be sure to clean them well and remove the beards. Steam them in a pot over a small amount of water. As they open, they will release their flavorful juices and you want to save every drop of that broth for the fritters. Here in New England, frozen mussel meats are available in some seafood stores. All you need to do is thaw them, steam them saving the broth, and you’re ready to go.

 

Ingredients:

 

1 lb Drum Rock fritter mix

2 cups cooked mussel meats

1/2 cup mussel broth (saved from steaming mussels)

1/4 to 1/2 cup good quality beer, such as Sam Adams Boston Lager

Peanut oil for frying

 

Be sure to let the batter rest. If you're waiting for guests to arrive, just cover the batter bowl with a moist towel and it will keep for several hours at room temperature.

Be sure to let the batter rest. If you’re waiting for guests to arrive, just cover the batter bowl with a moist towel and it will keep for several hours at room temperature.

 

Steam mussel meats until just cooked. Remove mussel meats, and reserve 1/2 cup of the broth. Pulse mussel meats in a food processor, but leave chunky…or chop by hand.

Put Drum Rock fritter mix in a large bowl. Add mussel meats, mussel broth, and beer. Stir gently until just mixed. Let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes and do not stir again.

Using a thermometer, heat oil to 350 degrees, and using a small spoon or scoop, drop fritters in hot oil, turning gently, cooking 3 to 4 minutes until golden.

Drain on absorbent paper, and season with salt and pepper immediately. Serve right away!

IMG_3043

 

The perfect dipping sauce for these mussel fritters is made from two ingredients: mayonnaise and Ponzu sauce, which is a citrus-based soy sauce. Combine both ingredients in a bowl. How much you use of each is a matter of personal preference. I usually use a ratio of 4 parts mayo to 1 part Ponzu.

 

NOT MY MOM’S PORK CHOP

Posted: April 13, 2014 in Carnivore!, Food, frying, pork, Recipes
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Pork chops were a favorite of mine growing up, but my Mom cooked them only one way: breaded and fried in a pan full of oil. They were good, but they were greasy, and my Mom was not big on seasonings. It was time to improve on the original.

chop 1

 

Ingredients:

2 Berkshire pork chops

1 egg

1/2 cup plain bread crumbs

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

olive oil

 

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Set up 2 bowls. In one, crack and scramble the egg. In the other, combine salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, granulated garlic and onion powder.

Place an oven-proof pan on medium-high heat and add a little olive oil. Once the oil is hot, cover the pork chops in the egg wash and then coat with the bread crumb mixture. Place in the hot pan to brown and sear. Do this with both chops.

After a few minutes, flip the chops over in the pan and place the pan in the oven to finish cooking.

chop 2

Remember, good pork does not need to be cooked until well done!

 

 

 

THESE ARE THE BALLS!

Posted: April 9, 2014 in Food, Italian, Recipes, san marzano, tomatoes
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There’s something magical about a simple plate of spaghetti and meatballs. When my parents took me to an Italian restaurant as a child, a plate of spaghetti and meatballs made me feel like the luckiest kid on the planet. And even now, when I prepare a plate of spaghetti and meatballs for my 7-year-old daughter, she can’t wait to sit down at the dinner table. She’s so busy shoveling the food into her mouth, she can’t even speak. I just get a quick thumbs-up between bites! meatballs

 

Great meatballs start with great meat. I always use 80/20 grass-fed beef. I don’t use a ton of breadcrumbs as filler. And the tomato sauce is homemade as well, from canned tomatoes. I start with the sauce…

 

B.F.I.M. SAUCE

Inspired by a lovely but large Italian lady I once knew, my Big Fat Italian Mama sauce is the best tasting sauce I’ve had anywhere.

 

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, through a press

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

10 cups ground and peeled tomatoes…or 3 cans (28 oz.) tomatoes pureed in food processor

2 teaspoons each: dried oregano, basil and parsley

3/4 teaspoon each anise seed and fennel seed

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 bay leaves

1 small can (6 oz.) tomato paste

1 teaspoon sugar (optional)

 

Heat olive oil in a large pot and add the onions. Cook until onions are translucent, then add the garlic. Stir for 10 seconds.

Add tomatoes and cook on high until orange foam disappears, stirring frequently. Don’t let it burn.

Add oregano, basil, parsley, anise seed, fennel seed, salt and pepper, bay leaves and tomato paste. Allow sauce to just come to a boil so that the tomato paste reaches optimum thickening power.

Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for at least an hour, until sauce reaches desired thickness. Stir often.

 

While the sauce is cooking, I start the meatballs…

 

THE BALLS

 

Ingredients:

2 lbs grass-fed ground beef

1 cup plain breadcrumbs (homemade are best)

2 tablespoons dried parsley

2 tablespoons dried oregano

1 tablespoon dried basil

1 tablespoon granulated garlic

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons salt

2 eggs, cracked and scrambled

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

 

Mix all the ingredients, except the olive oil, thoroughly but gently in a large bowl. Don’t overwork it.

Pour olive oil a medium-hot pan (don’t let it burn), make the meatballs, and sear them on all sides until brown.

When the meatballs are nice and brown, place them into the pot of sauce, making sure they are covered. Pour all the little bits and the olive oil from the pan into the sauce as well! Great flavor there.

Cover the pot and cook the meatballs in the sauce on low for a few hours. Pour over pasta, and sprinkle with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

 

AGING SPIRITS IN OAK BARRELS AT HOME

Posted: April 1, 2014 in Cocktails, drink recipes, Drinks, Food, mixology, Recipes, travel
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Used to be that only the big distilleries were able to age their finest spirits in charred oak barrels. But now, there’s a movement goin’ on…and hand-crafted oak barrels are available to aficionados at home.

Companies like Redhead Barrels (www.redheadoakbarrels.com) are offering oak barrels for aging that range in size from 1 liter to 20 liters. And that’s where this enthusiast comes in: with a 1-liter barrel, I’m able to age my favorite spirit–vodka, rum, whiskey, bourbon, anything–in just a few weeks, elevating the flavors to levels previously unknown. For example, they claim that Crown Royal will age to Crown Reserve in 14–15 days! Imagine what it can do for any spirit–or wine–you choose.

wood

My  1-liter barrel arrived with the spigot and bung separately. The instructions say that curing the barrel is necessary before using it. You do this by rinsing the barrel out a few times to remove any loose pieces of wood chips or splinters that may still be inside. You hand-turn the spigot into the barrel until it fits snugly and you place the barrel in your sink on the included stand. You fill the barrel with very hot water…and watch. Some barrels are totally watertight and will not leak. Others may take literally a few days of repeated fillings with hot water before it thoroughly seeps into the wood, expanding it to seal the barrel.

Once there are no leaks, you are ready to go. Simply empty the water out of the barrel and fill it with your favorite spirit. Because there is more wood surface area to less liquid, as compared to the large barrels companies like Jack Daniels use, your alcohol will age faster…in weeks instead of years. Once you’ve aged it as much as you want, you simply pour it into a bottle to stop the aging process. Rinse the barrel out thoroughly, and you are ready to age yet another spirit.

I chose to age a favorite cocktail that I first savored at the Greenhouse Tavern in Cleveland, Ohio, the brainchild of the insanely talented chef Jonathon Sawyer. The call it a Negroski, their take on a Negroni. It features equal parts Campari, Cocchi sweet vermouth, and OYO stone fruit vodka. They make large batches of it and keep it in a barrel until they serve it. So enamoured my wife and I were with this drink, that I begged the bartender to give me the recipe. He did, and though I could easily find Campari back home, I went on an internet search for the Cocchi vermouth (found it at http://www.drinkupny.com, a great wine and spirits website) and the OYO stone fruit vodka (an Ohio product that I finally found at http://www.thepartysource.com.)

Doing the math, equal parts of each ingredient meant 1 1/3 cups of each to make a quart…which fit perfectly in my 1-liter barrel. Once I corked the top with the bung, it was time to let it age.

A slight daily rotation of the barrel gently rocks the liquid inside, exposing it to the barrel’s charred wood interior, giving it more flavor. And at the end of   a week, I was ready for my first tasting: the wood had a subtle influence, rounding out the flavors. I wanted a little more, so I waited another week.: even better, but not quite there. It took a total of three weeks before the drink reached its flavorful peak.

I poured some of the drink into a cocktail shaker with ice, stirred briskly with a spoon, and strained it into a martini glass, garnishing with a twist of blood orange peel. Delicious!

cask

What’s next for my little wooden cask? Perhaps some of my Krupnikas (http://wp.me/p1c1Nl-lq).

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